Middle East

On the morning of November 15, Israel carried out the extrajudicial killing of Hamas military leader Ahmed al-Jabari. This act sparked off a new and deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza. This whole affair has all the hallmarks of a premeditated provocation. In this struggle, the IMT stands firmly on the side of the oppressed and against the oppressors. The Gaza crisis can be the match that reignites all the combustible material that has accumulated in the Middle East. It will mark a new stage in the ongoing Arab Revolution.

In part two on our series on the Syrian revolution, we outline the confusion that exists on the left as to the real nature of the Syrian regime because of what it was in the past. In the 1960s after a Ba’athist coup, the economy was transformed, adopting the model of the Stalinist USSR. Although progressive in terms of the measures carried out, it was never a regime based on workers’ democracy. Power was in the hands of a bureaucratic elite, and in this lay the danger of a reversal of the progressive measures and a return to capitalist relations.

It is a year since the Syrian masses rose up against the Assad regime. Since March 2011, the Syrian people have faced the open brutality of the state in wave after wave of mass demonstrations, strikes and civil disobedience. These movements arose in response to the stifling dictatorship, and against the massive inequality, unemployment and poverty in Syrian society. In this series of articles, we wish to present the Marxist position on the revolution, as well as clearing up the confusion around Assad's so-called "anti-imperialism".

With tensions rapidly escalating over Iran’s nuclear program, and with the recent statements issued by Netanyahu in his recent encounter with Obama, the spectre of armed conflict is yet again haunting the Middle East. Having burnt their fingers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon seems to want to avoid an armed conflict and the White House prefers the use of “diplomacy”. The Israeli government, however, has threatened targeted strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites.

Once again Israeli and American imperialism are sabre rattling in the Middle East. This time Iran is the target. Over the course of the last ten years one sanction after another has been placed on Iran in order to pressure it to abort its nuclear program. This time around, the Israeli regime is not hiding the fact that it is contemplating an attack against Iran.